Binary Notion
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: To date, Fujiki Yuusaku is the only person to escape the VRAINS intact. Kusanagi Shoichi considers him his only lead to finding his sister lost in there, and if that means putting Yuusaku back together, then so be it. And for Yuusaku, putting the world back together in his mind is more important - until encounters with the Knights of Hanoi tell them that's one and the same.


**A/N:** I blame the amnesia component. And Bikxie. I can't think of any other reason I dug up eleven year old knowledge of geometry from my brain. Except the physiology part. That's more recent.

And most of the fic will be normal third person and longer chapters. It'll get far too gruelling reading and writing an entire multichap with this sort of perspective. But everything in fun moderation, right? This can be a teaser until the first chapter proper and I'm curious to see what you guys pull out of it.

BTW, Ayukawa Emi is from GX. I needed a medical professional and couldn't think of anyone else off the top of my head. And after Arc-V brought back a few familiar faces, why not?

Written for the following challenges at the Duel Monsters Writing Academy:  
Diversity Writing Challenge, L5 - a multichapter containing multiple arcs of at least 25k each  
The Epic Masterclass Challenge, #3 – Remix Tapes

* * *

You're flying.  
You're falling.

You're swimming.  
You're drowning.

You're not sure which way is up.  
You're not sure which way is down.

It's just a mass of zeroes and ones all around.

That's a shame, you think, because you don't speak binary. Maybe you should learn… Even if the environment isn't really conducive for learning. Or doing anything.

Where are you?

… _who_ are you?

You can't see yourself, but you must exist. Perhaps you're zeroes and ones as well, just like zeroes and ones make up the world. Or perhaps you're the observer of a different kind but there's no mirror for you to see yourself in so you can't say. You can't know.

Right now, maybe you don't need to know.

What do you want?  
What will you do?

Will you choose to understand yourself  
or the world?

.

.

 **Binary Notions**  
 _Prologue_

.

.

Black and white.

That's another way of saying zero and one. The scene is far more complex than before but that's okay. I can learn to read it the same way.

There's quite a lot of white.

That simplifies things, actually. What complicates things is the depth – the three dimensional-nature of it all. Dots forming patterns. Lines forming shapes. I'm inside a cuboid, as far as I can tell. Or at least there are four corners and a rectangle in front of me. Assuming there's no extra corners behind me, of course.

There's another word for that rectangle. And the smaller rectangle.

Well, the zeroes and ones eventually came to me. And so did geometry and this monochrome scale. The other words will come as well. And with them, understanding.

But if the rectangle – the front of the cuboid – with its four corners eluded me, then the smaller, more haphazardly, shaped things would as well.

I left them. The wall was at least white in its entirety.

No, that wasn't true. Black danced upon it, like a… There was a word for that as well.

Zeroes danced upon the ones.

It was elusive, but bewitching.

Until there was only white and the corners and lines and complex geometry were all gone and there was only – pain.

Pain. Pain. Pain.

I needed those numbers again. I needed them now. Distracting me. Explaining things to me. This white space, that awful feeling ripping apart the being I am but don't even understand because I chose the world instead…

It sinks, slowly. Blotches of black appear in the white. The zeroes dancing amongst the ones.

.

'How are you feeling?'

Words. These are words. But what is a feeling? And where are these words coming from? There is only zeroes. Only black.

Then there's a sensation that's not quite pain and I can see white.

Black is still dancing on that white. More than before. But less than no white at all.

I can put a number to that. I can. I should.

But those other words are distracting.

What is a feeling?

'Can you use your words?'

What's the difference between words in my head and words that can be heard?

'Can you nod your head if you understand me?'

Nod? But even if I knew what that was, I didn't understand.

…oh. I did know after all. A reflex. A pathway plotted out. Zeroes and ones painting a road.

'Ah, that's a nod. Good.'

So I nodded after all?'

The blurry figure in front of me is nodding as well. What were they? Not cuboid like what enclosed us. No smooth edges. Not a polytope of any description. Not a sphere either.

'I'm Doctor Ayukawa. Can you tell me your name?'

Name… A name was a word to describe oneself, wasn't it?

But I chose to understand the world, instead.

'Fujiki Yuusaku.'

Those words… I don't understand them at all.

.

'Fujiki.'

The small rectangle swings on its axis and there are other indescribable shapes, one bigger and nearer and still approaching.

'You're Fujiki Yuusaku, huh.'

It stops up close. I can see more now. More detailed. Unless any shape that can be described in a single word.

No. There's a word for it. There's a word for everything.

'Kusanagi.' Black. Then the monochromic geometric picture rushes back in. 'Does that mean anything to you? What about the others?'

That word means nothing. And the rest is a jumble: numbers that don't seem to belong together until I see the pattern, the code, that holds it all.

In the meantime, there are zeroes and ones for everything, including this greatly misshapen shape with words. But only the overall shape is similar to the "Doctor Ayukawa" from before.

'Human,' I remember.

The human… shakes his head? The opposite of a nod, the misshapen sphere oscillating on a transverse instead of a sagittal plane.

Not a human then?

'You know her?'

The shapes tilt and straighten themselves.

'No, huh.' A pause, where the shapes settle back to their clarity before. 'Sure, I'm human. But if that's all you can come up with…' There's something odd with the words. Or maybe it's not the words that are odd.

'You're going to need a lot of work, Fujiki.'

Silence. Zeroes and ones try to plot out the world but it's still too complicated for me. For now.


End file.
